As ESA’s ɸ-week draws to a close, it’s worth remembering that the science and technology involved in observing our planet from space isn’t entirely for the preserve of experts. With a growing interest in the environment and the climate, there are plenty of opportunities for the general public to take part.

Access to space was in the spotlight at this week's Φ event which followed an ESA-hosted workshop on Europe’s emerging microlaunch services held in Paris, France for industry, investors and institutions.

In mid-December, twin discs will begin glowing blue on the underside of a minibus-sized spacecraft in deep space. At that moment Europe and Japan’s BepiColombo mission will have just come a crucial step closer to Mercury.

It may not be your actual Superman, but participants to ESA’s ɸ-week are certainly embracing some ‘superhero’ ideas for the future of Earth observation, including high-flying platforms – something between a satellite and an aircraft.

As ESA’s ɸ-week draws to a close, it’s worth remembering that the science and technology involved in observing our planet from space isn’t entirely for the preserve of experts. With a growing interest in the environment and the climate, there are plenty of opportunities for the general public to take part.

Access to space was in the spotlight at this week's Φ event which followed an ESA-hosted workshop on Europe’s emerging microlaunch services held in Paris, France for industry, investors and institutions.

In mid-December, twin discs will begin glowing blue on the underside of a minibus-sized spacecraft in deep space. At that moment Europe and Japan’s BepiColombo mission will have just come a crucial step closer to Mercury.

It may not be your actual Superman, but participants to ESA’s ɸ-week are certainly embracing some ‘superhero’ ideas for the future of Earth observation, including high-flying platforms – something between a satellite and an aircraft.

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It is time to prepare to listen to space. To celebrate the launch of the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO), ESA’s Education Office challenges the amateur radio community to listen out to be first to hear the new spacecraft orbiting Earth.

ESA Education and the Raspberry Pi Foundation are delighted to announce that Phase 2 of the European Astro Pi Challenge: Mission Space Lab has begun. During Phase 1, we received a record-breaking 471 entries from 24 countries! Now, the 365 selected teams will have the chance to write computer programs for the scientific experiments they want to send to the Astro Pi computers aboard the International Space Station (ISS)!

Last week enthusiastic future engineers and scientists had the chance to participate in the ESA Academy’s inaugural Space Systems Engineering Training Course at the Academy’s Training and Learning Facility, ESEC-Galaxia, Belgium.

This pilot cycle brought together the 30 University students, representing 16 ESA Member States, with ESA current and retired staff, who, armed with a wealth of experience in Space Systems Engineering and Project Management, set about the task of divulging the rich and varied work of a System Engineer at ESA.